In Good Company at SMX
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Written By Joshua Stylman | June 7, 2007 | Share This
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Yesterday, I returned to New York after spending a couple of days at the inaugural Search Marketing Expo, hosted by Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman. I wasn’t going to attempt to blog the individual sessions because no one could have done a better job than Barry in doing so at Search Engine Roundtable.
As Danny’s first hosted conference since his breakup with Search Engine Watch, SMX was expected to run like a repeat of its predecessor event, Search Engine Strategies. Though SMX definitely had a “getting the band back together” feel, the event was surprisingly different from recent Search Engine Strategies shows. Like SES, the conference featured excellent content and a strong range of speakers, but the dialogue was noticeably more sophisticated. Whether talking about strategic issues (e.g.: privacy or industry concerns) or tactical methods (quality score, spam penalties, etc), the attendees exemplified a level of passion that has long been lacking from SES. I had equally outstanding conversations with in-house marketers from Fortune 500’s like Time, Inc and CondeNast to more niche companies, but equally savvy folks from organizations such as PlasticSurgery.com. It was very reminiscent of search shows from the early part of the decade, when the audience was familiar and the attendees seemed truly excited about the industry.
As such, the hallways conversations were less about lead generation for exhibiting companies, and more about actual innovations in search. Granted, the competitive lead-driven atmosphere of SES isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is perhaps the inevitable result of industry maturation. Nevertheless, I really appreciated the grass-roots feeling that resonated throughout SMX - if for nothing other than to exemplify that, though the industry is growing, search events don’t have to be corporate.
On that note, I’d like to say Congratulations to Danny, Chris and the rest of the SMX team for a phenomenal debut. And, yes Danny, you can lose the suit…we’re all more comfortable when you’ve got your Vans on.
Topics: Conferences & Events, SEM: Firms, Search: News |
You should’ve said hi!
Anyway, Barry didn’t actually end up blogging - he had his sidekick and fellow guest writer cshel do it for him. But I give him credit - he added photos to my blog posts.
You hit it square, Joshua! Despite involvement in search since 1997, this was my first confererence of this type. I had looked into, and then pulled out of, SES over the last year or two simply because of the size.
I am very hopeful to be in Denver!